codyg1985’s Think Tank

I know, this may or may not be official, but nevertheless, it is an intersting discussion of the successor to Windows Vista.

Formerly codenamed “Blackcomb,” the sucessor to Windows Vista and “Longhorn” Server, now codenamed “Vienna,” is due in 2011. “Vienna” will radically change the way one uses the computer:

Internal sources pitch Vienna as being not just a major revision of Windows, but a complete departure from the way we have typically thought about interacting with a computer. While Windows Vista is intended to be a technologies-based release, with some added UI sparkle (in the form of the Aero set of technologies and guidelines), Vienna is targeted directly at revolutionizing the way we interact with our home and office PCs.

For instance, the “Start” philosophy, introduced in Windows 95, may be completely replaced by the “new interface” which was said in 1999 to be scheduled for “Vienna”, before being moved to the Longhorn project, and then back to “Vienna”.

The Explorer shell will be replaced in its entirety, with features such as the taskbar being replaced by a new concept based on the last 10 years of R&D at the Microsoft “VIBE” research lab. Projects such as GroupBar and LayoutBar are expected to make an appearance, allowing users to more effectively manage and keep track of their applications and documents while in use, and a new way of launching applications is expected - among other ideas, Microsoft is investigating a pie menu-type circular interface, similar in function to the dock in Mac OS X.